Bethany's Hockey Rants

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Victory against the Wild!

by Bethany on 10/04/08 at 10:38 AM ET
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Wow, what an amazing game! Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the most exciting first period, but it was great to see our team working as a team. Here are some random tidbits from the game.

I said this before, Pazzy sprained an ankle when Boogaard went into the net. Hitchcock said in his post game that Pazzy could have finished the game, but they put Norrena in just to be safe. Umberger took a slash to the finger, he will be back practicing with the team on Tuesday. Leclaire will be back practicing with the team also Tuesday. Hitch also said that the team will be back to 100% aside from Torres come Tuesday. Boll did have an ice pack on his hand in the locker room after the game, I don’t know what is going on with him and, I am sure we will be updated today.

The first period the Jackets were absolutely solid, they had a two goal lead, one of which came on the power play. Craig MacDonald scored a nice goal with credit to Voracek and Backman for the assists. Umberger scored the second goal on the power play and Nash and Huselius got the helpers. The Jackets were able to kill off two penalties, and looked absolutely solid power play, capitalizing on their first chance.

The second period was nasty. Kristian Huselius, scored to have us go up 3-0, at this point in time I sent out mocking texts to my Wild fan friends. Then, it all went down hill. Matvichuk took a holding penalty, and Owen Nolan scored a goal from Skoula and Johnsson. Less than a minute later Nash turned over the puck and Gaborik was able to capitalize making the game 3-2. A little over a minute later, Sheppard scored with an assist to Gaborik to tie things up. It was Sheppard’s first of the preseason. This was also the period where Pazzy was hurt, and he did not return to the bench for the third, and wasn’t in the locker room after the game.

The third period the Jackets came back and got it all together. Russell scored on the power play while Burns and Gaborik were in the box. Burns took out Voracek and then he and Jason Chimera exchanged some shoves. Then at the end of the game Gaborik took another penalty, and the Wild pulled their goalie, and Malhotra scored a shorthanded empty net goal. Freddy Norrena was solid in the third for the Jackets stopping all 12 shots that he faced. Niklas Backstrom faced 40 shots, and stopped 36 of them. He had a tough night, but the Jackets looked good, and threw everything at him.

Russell had an amazing night. He looked absolutely solid, and his time on ice really showed that, he played 21:13, 5:24 was on the power play, which is more than anyone else. It seemed every time you turned around he was doing great, he definitely earned his first star for the night.

Nash had an interesting night, he made a few mistakes but made up for it with his three assists.

Umberger was the center playing with Huselius and Nash. Here’s Nash on playing with Huselius:

“It’s great he finds you everywhere, we feed off each other. It seems like the chemistry has been good so far. It’s only been four games, but it seems to be getting better every game.”

Umberger looked great with Nash and Huselius, and Hitch seemed to agree, he said:

“I think on the road, we’ll probably go with Umberger there right now.”

Remember Brassard was playing on the top line until he came down with “flu like symptoms” so I guess he moves down to the second line.

Voracek disappeared at times, but for the most part he did well. When Burns pushed him down it was really nice to see Chimera stick up for him. Jackets play Monday in Toronto, and they go on the ice at noon today, so we will find out more about injuries, who is being sent down and sent to Juniors.

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